First Shot Monument, Fort Johnson, SC
Updated: Oct 3
Confederate Marble of the Month
This modest tablet was given by the local Centennial Committee to The College of Charleston in 1961, and sits today at the terminus of Fort Johnson Road (32.75121, -79.89782), on land owned by The College for its Grice Marine Laboratory.
It was the subject of a hateful essay by CofC Professor Joseph Kelly, and vandalized with vulgarities in the summer of 2020. The photo below shows three (then) members of Secession Camp #4 (Charleston) who cleaned it in September of that year: Don Clanton, Rob Dillon, and Mark Blalock.
The East-facing side reads:
“1861 – 1865. At half past four on the morning of April 12, 1861, from a mortar near this spot on Fort Johnson, the first shot of the War of Secession was fired by order of Captain George S. James of the Confederate States Army.
The shell exploded above Fort Sumter then occupied by Federal Forces, thus beginning the tragic conflict which Americans endured for four years.”
The West-facing side shows a cross with C-S-A-61 on the points, and reads:
“Dedicated April 12, 1961 by Charleston Confederate Centennial Commission"
Comments